


Semi-Serious

by DestinyFreeReally



Category: The Newsroom (US TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-17
Updated: 2019-01-17
Packaged: 2019-10-11 19:48:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 664
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17453165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DestinyFreeReally/pseuds/DestinyFreeReally
Summary: After breaking up with Wade, Mac's down in the dumps about love and Sloan's.... listening. Mostly.





	Semi-Serious

      “How many serious romantic relationships would you say you’ve had in your lifetime?” Mac asked, wine sloshing in her big glass and her shoes kicked off her feet.    
  
     During her break up with Wade, Mac thought she was keeping it together. Keeping together for Will, for the show, for herself. But recruiting Sloan for wine and a pity party, Mac felt like she was losing it. Losing everything, and maybe none of it had to really do with Wade. Maybe she kept doing it to herself.    
  
    Sloan shrugged, leaning in on her kitchen counter. “Serious romantic relationships, uh, well. Two? Time I almost got married, and one other guy. How do you define serious?”   
  
    Mac’s head wobbled in thought. “Is three serious relationships too many? I mean… semi-serious. Serious boyfriends, at least, you know. When you’re really dating, thinking about marriage and living together and matching towels.”   
  
    “Matching towels?” Sloan laughed. “You think about matching towels?”   
  
    “You know, they come in like a set, like a Mr. and Mrs. matching set, or an initial set. You know what I’m talking about, I know you do,” Mac stayed her course. “I don’t know that I was picking out towels with Wade, but. It felt like it was something, going somewhere… Or at least that it could’ve.”   
  
    “Really?” Sloan looked skeptical. Wade was  _ fine. _ Before all the betrayal and bitchiness, he was probably a fine guy, a fine boyfriend. “You might’ve  _ picked out towels _ with him?”    
  
    Huffing a sigh, Mac slurped her wine, thinking. “No, I guess not. Not in that way, but. I got what I deserved, I know I did, I just don’t understand when that ends. Because the worst part about picking out towels in your brain and then never getting them, is you remember what they look like in your head, you know? You get out of the shower every so often, and look down at your lonely little towel in your lonely little life and you know that if you just hadn’t been so stupid you’d have the perfect towel by now.” Leaning her chin down on her hand, Mac frowned at Sloan. “Am I making any sense?”    
  
    “Perfect sense, if we’re using troll logic and karma is a metric point system,” Sloan talked into her wine and tried to keep her sarcasm to a level drunk Mac would appreciate.    
  
    “I told Will we were serious,” Mac confessed with a frown.   
  
    “You and Will?”   
  
    “Me and Wade,” swallowing a gulp, Mac thought about Will and Wade’s conversation on New Year’s Eve.  _ Don’t call him honey, _ he’d snapped, and then she’d accidentally called Will her boyfriend Wade more than waiting in the wings. She hadn’t told Wade about Will, because she knew she’d have to explain. Explain how long they dated, how serious they were; explain why they broke up. “I told Will, I was letting myself out of jail and looking for a partner,” she remembered, sadly. “But maybe I’ve used my allotted chances, you know? Maybe some people have to live with the fact that they will only pick out towels in their brains,” she let out a deep sigh.    
  
    “By this reasoning, I only have one serious boyfriend chance left, and if I mess it up I have to pick towels alone?” Trying to follow the thought, Sloan wondered what it would take for Will to forgive Mackenzie. For him to let them both out of jail, in a way.    
  
   “I think so,” Mac nodded, with her eyes watery.    
  
   “But. Wade was the first guy you’ve been with since Will?”    
  
   “Mhm,” Mac sniffled.    
  
    “ _ That  _ probably doesn’t help; you put yourself out there and look what happened,” Sloan sighed, and winced when she saw she wasn’t helping either. “You know what I mean, Kenz. Will knows you didn’t use him to promote Wade.”   
  
   “Does he, though?” Mac wondered what Will could think of her, these days. Every misstep hurt both of them, professionally, personally.    
  
   “He knows,” Sloan promised, “he knows.”


End file.
